


Kissing Captain America

by intravenusann



Category: Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-07
Updated: 2012-05-07
Packaged: 2017-11-04 23:54:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/intravenusann/pseuds/intravenusann
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Thor and Iron Man's clash, Agent Phil Coulson tries to get Steve to sign his cards again and winds up giving him a bit of a pep talk. And a shoulder massage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kissing Captain America

“Do you have a moment, sir?” someone asked.

Steve looked up and Agent Phil Coulson smiled at him, looking young and hopeful for all the stiff black lines of his suit. The cards, right. It made him feel ridiculous, especially after all this. But he couldn’t say no, so he swallowed around every awkward, frustrated feeling.

“Of course, Agent Coulson, sir,” Steve told him.

“You really don’t have to do that, sir,” Coulson said. “I mean, call me ‘sir.’ Just Phil is fine.”

Steve felt the nervousness in his own smile, “Alright Phil.”

“You know, you can call me Steve, if you want,” he offered.

“No, I really don’t think ―”

“Or Cap,” Steve suggested. If Coulson, or Phil, now, started getting too flustered — like every time before — he’d get flustered too. God forbid he trip over something in a fit of self-consciousness after the disaster that was this group of… heroes.

“Alright, Cap,” Phil replied. His teeth peeked out when he smiled and he couldn’t seem to stop smiling. It put Steve at ease, but also made him even more nervous somehow.

He had just been doing what he had to do, and he’d just never understand why some stranger over half a century later would care ― let alone enough to collect trading cards. It was never about this, and he didn’t know what “it” should even be about now.

It would be rude to ask how old Phil is, though he’d surely tell Steve if he’d asked. He did look like he was much over thirty, or maybe forty. He’d been born long after Steve had nose-dived into the arctic, no matter how he sliced it. Why should he care? Why should he care so much?

“What do you think of,” he paused so he wouldn’t fill in his words with “uhs” and “uhms.”

“― Thor and Iron Man?” Phil asked, while Steve was still trying to think of what he should call them, or the situation they just go into.

“Yes.”

“Mr. Stark is… volatile, or at least that’s the start of it, sarcastic and more than just narcissistic,” Phil told him. “This is privileged information, but, of course, I can share it with you, Cap. He’s not really a team player, and I admit SHIELD has had to be a bit heavy handed with him in the past. He gets a job done, though, don’t know how he does it.”

“And Thor’s not quite as bad as Tony,” Phil offered. “He’s a good guy, I believe, but, I mean, he thinks he’s a god. Or people think he’s a god and he’s just an alien crown prince, either way he can be… difficult.”

Phil looked over and Steve could see the way he mood shifted having seen Steve’s scowl. It was focus, really, and maybe a little bit of worry about what kind of world considered people like that heroes. He wasn’t angry and so he relaxed his face on command.

“But, hey, at least he’s even less likely to catch a reference than you are!” Phil said, as though that made things better. “I mean, at least you’re still from Earth.”

“Thanks,” Steve said. “I think.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean… I just…” Phil stopped and hissed his breaths between his teeth. Now he was the one scowling.

“I just don’t know what anyone expects me to do here,” Steve said. “With both of them.”

“Well, think of the Howling Commandoes,” Phil said and Steve’s heart ached just to hear the name. He’d looked, SHIELD said they’d looked, but apparently if any of his last team was still alive they couldn’t be found. Not by him. Not by a massive, global intelligence organization that could spy on people from space.

“They were from so many different places, with some many different skills and personalities,” Phil explained what he already knew. “Did they get along? Were they easy to lead?”

He asked without expecting an answer and a hard, serious look shaded his whole face. There was no awe there, it was nearly a lecture. He’d thought Maria Hill was the hard ass of Fury’s favorites, but maybe he had misjudged. Reading social situations and women had never been his strong point and that hadn’t improve while he’d been on ice.

“You… SHIELD expects me to lead those two?” Steve asked. He couldn’t help the disbelief that eased into his voice.

“No one else could,” Phil said. He wasn’t smiling and though he was physically looking up at Steve, there was none of the uncomfortable worshipful look about it.

Steve sagged against a locker room bench and Phil stepped around to his side.

“Excuse me,” he said, before settling one hand and then the other between Steve’s shoulder blades.

“If I learned one thing from dealing with Tony Stark, it’s that something about him just makes your shoulders tense as hell,” Phil explained.

“It’s the way he slouches,” Steve offered.

“Ah,” Phil replied. “Exactly it.”

His thumbs dug in viciously, but Steve felt the knots of tension fade. They would have anyway, obviously, he didn’t stay sore long, not over something so minor. But still…

“Tell me about them, about the men I’m supposed to lead,” Steve said.

“You got the files,” Phil told him.

“Files never say it all,” he retorted.

“True, true,” he said. “Well…”

So he told Steve about the public life of Tony Stark, before he got a heart full of shrapnel — that he used to be the world’s biggest arms dealer just like his dad. There was so much more to Howard Stark that Steve remembered, though, but he can see a lot of those things in his son’s flippant attitude. He sounded like a warmonger, and Steve felt himself tense up just at the thought of it. Maybe it was just everything Loki brought to the forefront of his mind in Germany, but he just…

Howard Stark was flying cars and a future that war just got in the way of, but his grown son shilled landmines and shot first, asked questions later.

Captain America carried a shield and not a sword for a reason.

Thor didn’t seem too bad, though, or at least Phil didn’t think he was too bad. The guy certainly seemed impressed with Steve’s shield, and maybe him? It was hard to tell. Steve had a hard enough time with the length of his hair, trying to parse how an alien demigod felt about him after he’d tried and failed to smash him with his science magic hammer was currently beyond him. Maybe it always would be.

“A CEO, er, business leader and a crown-prince aren’t going to be easy to lead anywhere, but I think you’re proving yourself to them,” Phil finished.

He patted Steve on the back and, somehow, it was reassuring. He didn’t know Phil from Adam and he didn’t think he could trust him to be very objective. Still, he felt better anyway.

There was something really familiar to the way Phil slung his arm over Steve’s shoulders when he sat down beside him. He smiled again, in that way that said he was just glad to be around him. It was weird, but nice. He hadn’t had enough time to get used to this before, maybe he never would. Honestly, Steve couldn’t imagine himself as being popular for, well, being himself.

“You’ve done great things,” Phil reminded him. “You’re only going to do more of them, I know it.”

Steve smiled, really smiled, and whatever aches he’d had from taking the brunt of Mjolnir’s blow and putting up with Tony Stark weren’t even memories anymore.

Phil leaned in a bit, which Steve couldn’t help but notice, but he didn’t think anything of it until the man was standing up again and brushing himself off.

“Sorry, sorry,” he said.

Flustered again, he made Steve feel flustered too, especially since he just didn’t understand what the fuss was about.

“I’m sorry,” he was quick to jump in, though he had no idea what he was apologizing for… yet.

“What are you sorry for?” they said at the same time, or close to it.

“It’s nothing,” Phil told him. He rubbed his face with one hand, open palmed. “I don’t want to make me uncomfortable.”

“You won’t,” he said, which made Phil laugh.

Steve didn’t like being laughed at, even though he couldn’t really imagine that Phil would. He stood up and maybe glowered a little bit. Only a little, he wanted the truth, but it would be completely unethical to use someone’s admiration — which Steve felt was entirely baseless — to get his way.

“Just thought something unprofessional is all,” Phil told him. “Nothing to worry about, si—Cap.”

“You’re asking me here to sign trading cards,” Steve pointed out.

“This… Isn’t the same.”

Steve stared him down and Agent Phil Coulson, as much as Captain America seemed to impress him, didn’t back down.

“I thought you were close enough to kiss,” Phil said, like it was a bland and boring observation.

As the words sunk in, Steve felt his ears heating up.

“Oh,” he said. “Well, I guess I was.”

“I still am,” Steve pointed out. Phil wasn’t stand out handsome, but he was a good man. He wanted Steve to be happy in this time, comfortable.

“You don’t have to do that,” Phil said, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to.

“I’d like to,” Steve replied. “If you’d like it.”

It didn’t seem much different from that blonde woman, or lots of other people who would have liked to kiss him, because he was Captain America. There were a few people who might have cared to kiss him because he was Steve Rogers, Bucky and Peggy, really, but kisses meant for Captain America were pretty nice too.

Phil made only an odd little noise when Steve touched the side of his face. He smelled sharply like aftershave and it wasn’t strange at all, tentative and quiet, but soft and warm as any kiss. Phil kissed back, but gently, and settled his hand against Steve’s arm.

“My first kiss in the twenty-first century,” Steve said, softly. His hand was still against Phil’s cheek.

“I’m honored,” Phil said, stammering slightly.

His whole face was light up after, more than just smiling. ‘I did that,’ Steve thought.

He laughed a little, but it was warm. He’d just done something he never would have done before. The future wouldn’t be so bad after all, then. They’d lost a lot, but gained a lot too.

“You know,” Phil said. “Why don’t we get some coffee or something? The cards can wait a little longer.”


End file.
